Curare's Adventures

Happy Birthday Linda

Since we'll be at sea for Linda's birthday we will have to hold off the celebration until we make landfall, although we will certainly have a toast for her. 

We recently met a cruising boat that had small children on board.  The youngest had his birthday while underway but the parents told him his birthday was the day they arrived in port so that they could take him in for a proper celebration.  Maybe we'll try the same with Linda.

 

Happy Birthday Linda.

Cooking While Underway

Cooking while underway can vary from easy to difficult and overall the current passage has been a challenge. The first few days were calm and Curare was a stable platform but as soon as the wind started it has been like a circus ride. If I was less of a perfectionist I might be satisfied with a can of stew and a spoon, but I have a lovely stove and I am going to use it.

Most of this passage has been hard on the wind, which means the boat is heeled (tipped) over so that one side of the boat deck is at water level. In addition the seas are very confused so Curare is also rolling from side to side and rocking back and forth. Luckily my stove is gimballed, a fancy sailing word which means the stove is hanging free and as the boat moves around the stove stays perfectly level. I can leave a boiling pot on the stove top without (too many) worries and baked goods come out of the oven with a level top, not slanted. The challenge is in the preparation because the counter tops are NOT gimballed, they are slanted and move in all directions. Nothing on a counter stays in one spot; vegetables roll around, bags of flour and sugar end up on the floor, spice bottles fly from one side of the galley to the other and bowls do not stay in place. I have stopped some of this movement by placing non-skid mats on all counter surfaces and I use low bowls with wide bases but accidents still happen. Yesterday, during a particularly violent roll, the bits of stew meat that I had just finished cutting ended up on the other side of the galley, under the oven. How they found their way to that spot is a mystery because the gap under the oven is only 6 cm in width and if I tried to throw something in there I would miss.

The constant motion and tippiness means I cannot haul out all of my ingredients at once, each item has to be taken from it's storage place to be prepped or measured and then has to be stowed again before the next item is bought out. For example when baking bread I cannot take out the milk, oil, flour, sugar and yeast all at once or I would be using the floor as a mixing bowl. Instead I place real mixing bowls on the stove top (remember the stove top stays level) and then take the flour out, measure that, put it back, take the sugar out, measure that, put it back........ It is a little time consuming but nothing gets spilled and on a passage I have lots of time. Making lunches and dinners I use much the same method except vegetables and pasta or rice take the place of the flour and milk, and I generally do not measure any of the ingredients, I just estimate.

Curare's motion also means I have a lot of bruises. Walking from one end of the boat to the other requires two hands to hang on and as soon as I only use one hand, or tempt fate by using no hands, I end up with a bruise from bashing into a fixed hard object. Unfortunately cooking quite often requires the state of "no hands to hang on" so to compensate I wedge myself into a corner leaning against an unforgiving counter top and there is another bruise. The bruised area hurts so I adjust position and get another one in a different spot. At this stage in the passage I have no unbruised spots to lean on so they just get larger. Getting stowed food out of lockers also contributes to bruising. If I have both hands inside of the locker sorting through bags, boxes or cans and the boat drops sideways I am flung to the other side of the boat, usually landing against a hard object, although a few times I have ended up on top of the snoozing Jessie.

The one good thing about being on passage is the time I can devote to making tasty meals and bakery items. When I am at anchor or in a port there is so much to do and to see that I tend to ignore any cooking task beyond the "ready in 30 minute or less" meal. Out here, where there is little to do except keep watch, I can spend the entire afternoon cooking. This means we will arrive in port fatter than when we left, not a good thing but at least we're staying healthy.

Storm Sails

One of the things that we had always wanted to have before going offshore was a proper set of storm sails so that we could handle Curare properly in big winds and seas.

This summer we ordered a new trysail and storm jib from North Sails and had them delivered to us in Vancouver.  The sails are approximately 30% of the regular sails and are designed to keep the center of effort as low as possible to diminish rolling in heavy seas.  The sails are made from 9.6 ounce dacron and are very solidly built with bright orange patches at the head, tack and clew.

Like the liferaft, ditch bag, EPIRB and parachute anchor we hope never to have to use these pieces of safety equipment, but it's comforting to know that should the occasion arise we will be as equipped as possible to deal with the situation.

Half Way to Easter Island

Curare and crew have crossed the half way mark on their 1950 mile passage from the Galapagos Islands to Easter Island. The first four days of the trip were in light conditions with as many as three sail changes an hour trying to get the optimum sail configuration for the light and variable winds in the doldrums. Once south of 7 degrees latitude we picked up the trade winds blowing off the South American continent. For the past six days theses winds have consistently blown from the southeast at a steady 20 to 25 knots. Our rhumbline course for Easter Island has been 220 degrees, which has us mostly on a close reach. The seas are running high at 2.5 metres with waves and spray on top. As these waves are on our beam we occasionally get slapped sideways by the larger ones. It's been a raucous ride where "one hand for the ship" has true meaning.

We've only seen three ships so far on the passage, and always at night. One ship was heading bow into the seas and came within a half mile of us before we caught their attention and had them fall astern of us. We are limited in our course settings in these conditions so would have had a difficult time to get out of their way.

Four other sailboats are making the passage to Easter Island at this time. All these boats set out a week or more before us, so we are able to collect weather information from them and get a sense of the sea state ahead of us. We talk daily over the radio and track each others positions. One of the vessels, a single handing women, has a disabled rig. Her forestay broke a few days ago and she is sailing along under jury rig, making relatively good progress. Another of the vessels in our group stopped by and gave the disabled boat a jug of water to last the rest of her trip. And if Curare catches up, we will be offering the same.

We've been averaging 100 or so miles per day, so with 900 miles to go we'll be at sea for at least the next week. With Curare so well stocked with provisions, we could continue on for at least another month. But at this point we'd rather get ashore to stretch our legs and see some Moai statues.

We update our position daily so if you'd like to know where we are currently, click on the position report button on the left side of the blog window.

Wind Energy

As part of their effort to become self sufficient with less reliance on imported products and fuels, several windmills have been established on Isla San Cristobal.  The goal is to have 50% of the energy necessary on the island provided by these windmill farms which theoretically reduces 3,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually as well as reducing the risk of fuel spills during transportation from the mainland.  However, the turbines that we have seen in two different locations were not turning at all, which is not too surprising since the Galapagos Islands are located on the equator where the ITCZ, or doldrums, is located.

We wish the islanders luck in obtaining their energy  efficient goals, reducing their CO2 footprint and minimizing the risk of fuel spills.

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

Although the majority of visitors to the Galapagos join tour groups and travel from island to island with a naturalist guide there are also independent travelers hoping to do things on their own. The town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal has several free things to see and do, many of them within walking distance from the anchorage, a few accessible by taxi.

Ecuadorian tourists do not come here for a "nature fix" they use this town as a beach resort, competing for the soft white sands of Playa Mann and Chino beach with the resident sea lion populations. In contrast the backpacker types are primarily here to go surfing and it is a common sight in the mornings to see them waiting for a taxi.  For the more energetic there are well marked paths through the  scrubby vegetation to Frigate Bird Hill and to Las Tijeretas Bay where you can go snorkeling in crystal clear water, and thirty minutes on foot brings you to La Loberia, a rocky beach with a sea lion colony and land iguanas. A little further away, in the center of the island, is Laguna El Junco, a freshwater lake in the crater of an extinct volcano which is a prime bird watching spot.

Several of the other activities which were described in our guide books are no longer available to local tourists, only to those who pay vast sums of money for a week long boat tour, but even without those places we had an enjoyable time and managed to see a lot. Truly an unforgetable experience.

Darwin and the Galapagos Islands

The life and work of Charles (carlos) Darwin is so closely connected with the Galapagos Islands that most people, me included, think that he spent a significant amount of time here. According to displays in the Interpretation Center Isla San Cristobal was his first stop, just like Curare, and near the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, where Curare was anchored, there is an impressive statue of Darwin.

Therefore I was surprised to learn that in 1835 Darwin spent a mere five weeks in the islands and he was much more interested in the geology than biology. In fact many of his Galapagos specimens did not even have a label telling where they were found.  Most horrifying to me was my discovery  that he rode around on the top of the giant tortoises and even took part in their capture for use as fresh meat on his ship. I suppose I should not have been surprised because between 1811 and 1844 passing sealers, buccaneers and whalers took more than 100,000 of the tortoises and caused three species to become extinct, but I have always thought of Darwin as the first naturalist.
 
One other interesting fact: Darwin's Origin of Species, first published in 1859, devotes only 1% of it's discussion to the Galapagos. Which leaves me to wonder - how did Darwin and Galapagos become so strongly connected?

Diving with the Galapagos Sharks

As mentioned previously, we were limited to only two available tours during our stay at Isla San Cristobal.  The second tour we went on was a diving/snorkeling trip out to Leon Dormido, locally known as Kicker Rock.  We sailed past this prominent rock with it's split face when we first arrived in the islands.  Due to the currents in the area that bring fresh plankton and fish, the location is a popular place for the Galapagos shark to hang around.  We went out on a local tour boat that had 12 people on board for snorkeling and six divers.

The boat took us to the face of the rock and the divers splashed in and descended to 60 feet.  The wall was very colourful with lots of blue, red and green sponges along the face, some soft fan coral and lots of reef fish.  As we turned into the cut and descended a few more feet we could see several of the sharks swimming around us.  They weren't too large at around one metre in length, although Linda saw one that was over two metres long - fortunately at a safe distance.  We sat on the bottom for a few minutes and got to see a couple of hammerhead sharks swim by plus a turtle and several sea lions, as well as all the usual large amounts of colourful fish.  After 40 minutes in 70F water we felt as if we were frozen to death.  It took 45 minutes on surface before the uncontrollable shaking from cold (not from the sharks!) finally stopped.  But after our surface interval we were ready to go again for another dive to see it all again.  

Isla San Cristobal Tours

One of the bigger decisions we had to make when coming to the Galapagos Islands was which one of the three available anchorages we wanted to stop at.  As expected, the islands are highly regulated and traffic closely monitored.  Private vessels may land at either Puerto Baquierizo Mareno on Isla San Cristobal or Puerto Ayora on Isla Santa Cruz and request to stay for up to 20 days, limited to the port of entry only.  To stay longer (up to six weeks) and visit other ports, including Puerto Villamil on Isla Islabella a special permit called an Autografo is required.  We did not have the time nor wanted to subject Jessie to a prolonged stay confined aboard so knew that we would only be able to go to one port. 

But which one?  Which has the provisions necessary for the next leg of our trip?  Which offered worthwhile shore side excursions?  Which port was the safest and most comfortable?  After consulting our rather extensive ships' library we chose to go Isla San Cristobal in order to see the Galapagos tortoises, swim with the Galapagos sharks, hopefully see some of the various finches that Darwin documented as well as the Galapagos mockingbird, various booby colonies and some interesting geological formations.

After landing and clearing in we found out that we were restricted to only two different tours - the tortoise breeding station and diving with the sharks.  Other tours offered by local operators to the more remote sites had recently been cancelled by the National Park.  The only way to see these locations was with one of the large cruise ships travelling through the area.  How it was determined that disgorging 300 people at a site is more ecologically friendly than showing eight people around is hard to figure out, until you factor in the access fees the larger tour operators pay.  The Galapagos Islands are not free of political and bureaucratic persuasion.

We got together with the crews from three other boats in the bay and organized our own trip to the tortoise breeding station on the other side of the island, 30 kilometres away.  We arrived at the morning feeding time and were lucky to see several mature and very large tortoises in their natural enviornment.  The breeding station has been in operation for several years now with a very good success ratio.  The goal is to bring the Galapagos tortoise clear of the endangered species and become self sustaining after nearly being decimated over the past five centuries.  At the station, the park rangers collect the fresh eggs to protect them from predators such as feral cats and rats and place them in incubators until ready to hatch.  The eggs are then returned to the nest in the same orientation as when originally laid and eventually the young tortoise breaks through the shell and has a look around.

The hatched tortoises are confined to pens until they are 8 to sometime 15 years old.  They don't grow much over that first decade, possibly reaching 12 to 15 centimetres in width.  As they mature, the tortoise are eventually released into the nearby native brush where they forage around themselves supplemented with the food provided by the park rangers every few days.  The mature, 25 to 40 year old tortoises that we saw were up to one metre across their shell and weighed 40 to 60 kilograms.  The whole breeding facility was very well run and has so far been successful in helping to stabilize the tortoise population.

Fauna and Flora

Visitors to the Galapagos arrive on the islands for various reasons, but primarily they go to see the amazing variety of plants and animals. I was no different. Therefore it was a huge disappointment to discover that we were only allowed to go to one island, the one where Curare made landfall. Our choice of landfall was Isla San Cristobal which meant that I would not get to see a flightless cormorant, a Galapagos penguin or a waved albatross, all endemic to Isla Isabella, BUT I would get a chance to see the blue-footed booby, marine iguanas, giant tortoises, and Galapagos Sea lions. It was difficult to miss the sea lions, they were everywhere; swimming around Curare, lounging on benches and stairs at the ferry dock and sleeping on the beaches. Looking at giant tortoises required a bit more effort plus a taxi ride to the breeding center on the other side of the island, but once we arrived the tortoises were everywhere and I could have watched them for hours. Now I just had to see a marine iguana and blue-footed booby. These creature sightings are supposed to be easy at a place named Isla Lobos and our dive excursion stopped there for snorkeling so I was expecting great things. Just like many other times I did not get to see what I was expecting but I did get to snorkel with sea lions and as some famous person once said "you can't always get what you want....". On our last day in the Galapagos, with no expectations, I went for a walk to the nearby lighthouse to get some off-the- boat exercise. Too my delight I saw a pair of blue-footed boobies sitting perched on the rocks and then I saw the marine iguanas - they were everywhere, crouched on boulders next to the ocean. The marine iguana is the world's only sea going lizard and has a powerful tail for swimming underwater. It would have been amazing to see them while snorkeling but even on land they were impressive.